A new platform used by Aviva employees is expected to help the company generate carbon and energy savings.
Utilidex’s cloud based solution is live at the insurance company’s sites across the UK and brings together different energy information to a single hub in real time.
Karyn Peacocke, Director of Corporate Partnership at Utilidex told ELN the platform – which combines energy procurement, bill validation and energy management – allows businesses to unlock value within their energy systems and supply chain.
She adds the company is working with Aviva’s employees to interpret really complex energy data: “In each of their locations, they have dashboards which display energy information in real time so employees can see how their behaviour is affecting the carbon and energy being used in the building.
“We’re asking them to look at what their target was in terms of carbon for the day, week and year. Then look at how the building is being used by colleagues and visitors to influence that.”
The data provided is said to have helped Aviva reduce energy use by up to 15% so far. The company has set a 40% target by 2020 and 50% by 2030.
Ms Peacocke states: “The energy manager in Norwich has 30-40 sites located across the UK. He can’t be in each one so he has remote access to the dashboards. He can direct communications to those dashboards. Before a long weekend for example, they run a programme called the Big Switch Off, which is reminding colleagues to completely switch off their computers and equipment and is a full shut down of the building.
“By Tuesday morning, they can see which building achieved the shut off target and which one didn’t. Evenings and weekends are 70% of the week and saving energy at these times can have a great impact on your carbon and energy budgets.”
She adds businesses are installing energy efficiency measures such as solar panels and LEDs and while they will achieve good savings with that, “there’s still a tranche of savings that can be found as a result of behaviour change once you’ve made those installations”.
Ms Peacocke gives her three top tips on how firms can save energy: “First one is you need to bring your energy information together, your procurement information along with your energy usage so you get a very clear understanding of how much energy is costing you in any single half hour in the day at any single site.
“Secondly, businesses need to engage stakeholders at all levels. Not only do you need to ask the board for investment in new technologies, you also need to be down on the shop floor and understand who has the ability to make changes in the way they go about their day and can identify other savings that can be had.
“Thirdly, a lot of companies’ energy teams are small. For the vast majority of organisations, they have a single person or a very small team that are responsible for this. For those people, I would strongly suggest that technology be leveraged so it will make their job easier. Use a software that is intelligent, one which can both identify issues and opportunities for savings. Let technology do the work – it’s like having a massive team working for you, 24 hours a day.”
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